Stories
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Alabama Youth Council students make their own rules while learning to lead
Rebecca Solaque was after something she couldn’t quite name. Then she found it this spring — in the Jefferson County branch of the Alabama Youth Council, a group of about 10 high school students that meets biweekly at the Hoover Public Library. “I was looking for a sense of community,” said Solaque, a 16-year-old high…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Redistricting fight in Louisiana city continues five years after census
St. Mary Congregational Church is a small worship center on Louisiana Street just outside downtown Abbeville, Louisiana. Unlike the massive St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church a few blocks away, the simple, wood-framed building fits snugly into the middle of the neighborhood block, with only its bright white paint and steeple giving its presence away. Attendance among…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Florida Vote Your Voice grantees excite, educate, mobilize voters of all ages
Sheila McCants was director of the federal TRIO program for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds at a Tampa, Florida, community college in late 2023 when she experienced a light-bulb moment on voter education. She was speaking with an 18-year-old college student her staff had registered to vote. He later told her assistant that he probably…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
SPLC report: Medicaid expansion can rectify harm to Black people in Deep South
For decades, Tina Payne’s hands moved with mechanical precision, operating machinery in a catfish processing plant in the Mississippi Delta. The grueling labor took a lasting toll on Payne’s body, leaving her with multiple injuries that eventually led to her disability. When Payne applied for Medicaid, she expected the system she had paid into for…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Three years after Alabama’s abortion ban, many must make tiring trips for care
About every other day in Alabama, a woman suspecting she is pregnant seeks abortion counseling at an Alabama clinic without knowing how far into the pregnancy she is. She may be a mother with three young children at home. She might be in an abusive relationship. Or perhaps she is a student who someday wants…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Royal homecoming a chance to recharge as community faces uncertain future
By central Florida standards, the summer Saturday morning in Royal was mild. “The rain yesterday cooled things off,” said Cliff Hughes as he prepared chicken thighs and drumsticks in the parking lot adjacent to the site of the former Royal Community School, now part of a 4-acre park. He had two large, deep frying pans…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
As Juneteenth approaches, Black Florida community renews preservation bid
A search for Royal, Florida, in Google Maps returns a snapshot of mostly green space speckled with pools of blue. There are two county roads — one that runs north and south, another east to west — and a prominent gray line slicing through its center, marking the route of Interstate 75. No dotted lines…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Georgia’s youngest state lawmaker an educator, community organizer first
A framed photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy on the first desegregated bus ride after the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended hangs on the wall of Georgia state Rep. Bryce Berry’s office. It was a graduation gift Berry brought with him to the Georgia State Capitol when he was sworn in this year…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
A fun new game in Mississippi tests the voter education of young people
The sound of raised voices echoed through the lecture hall as a battle ensued on the stage. Opponents threw barbs and jabs, desperate to steal their rivals’ earnings in a winner-take-all game of wits. The subject? Government. “Explain the role of a sheriff and the level of government to which the sheriff belongs,” said Shonna…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Alabama Advocacy Institute fellows foster strength in their communities
Before 2005, Pearlington, Mississippi, wasn’t known for much — if at all. The small riverside town, population 1,153, hugs the southern corner of the state’s western border with Louisiana near the mouth of the Pearl River. When Warren Tidwell arrived that fall, it was mostly rubble. After Hurricane Katrina made its second landfall a couple…
